Najib explains ‘luxury goods’
Reuters
LANGKAWI (Reuters) — Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak says he shouldn’t be blamed for the multibillion-dollar 1MDB scandal, and declares he knows nothing about money from the state fund appearing in his personal account.
He does, though, have explanations for the vast sums of cash, luxury handbags and jewelry recently seized from his homes by the Malaysian authorities.
Speaking to Reuters in his first sit-down interview since his shock May 9 election defeat, Najib said his advisors and the management and board of 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) had wrongly kept the alleged embezzlement of funds a secret from him.
Newly elected Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad told
on Tuesday that the authorities have “an almost perfect case” against Najib on charges of embezzlement, misappropriation and bribery linked to 1MDB.
The 64-year-old politician lost the election after a decade in power at least partly because of the 1MDB scandal, which US Attorney-General Jeff Sessions has described as “kleptocracy at its worst.”
Najib, in some of his most extensive comments yet on the 1MDB scandal, said he did not know if hundreds of millions of dollars that moved through his personal account was from 1MDB, and if money from the fund was eventually laundered to acquire assets globally, including yachts, paintings, gems and prime real estate.
“I’m not party to the yacht, the paintings... I’ve never seen those paintings whatsoever,” said Najib.
“I was not aware of these purchases. This was done without my knowledge. I would never authorize 1MDB funds to be used for any of these items,” Najib told